USB devices are utilized as part of a number of systems including but not limited to printers, monitors, keyboards, mice, memory devices such as flash memory devices or “thumb drives,” cellular phones, digital cameras, digital recorders, and other peripherals. Computers are designed to utilize various operating systems such as Microsoft's Windows XP™ and Windows Vista™ and Apple's Mac OS X™.
USB devices generally operate using a standard protocol or interface, such as the interface set by the USB Implementers Forum, Inc. The USB Implementers Forum, Inc. is a non-profit corporation founded by a group of companies that developed a Universal Serial Bus specification. For more information regarding the USB specification, the reader is encouraged to consult the document “Universal Serial Bus Specification” Revision 2.0, published by the USB Implementers Forum in 2000, and later versions (hereinafter the “USB Specification”).
USB devices may communicate with computers utilizing an operating system without the need to install additional drivers or software onto the computer provided the instructions or requests used by the USB device are supported by the drivers resident on the host. Administrators may wish to maintain control over a user's modifications to a computer. Thus, operating systems allow administrators to limit the ability of users to install or update drivers or modify the operation of the computer. The environment the user encounters in this case is often referred to as a restricted host environment.